Friday, 25 April 2014

Male Body Issues Don't Matter

Male body insecurity is not the most important thing facing our society at the moment. I would say famine, climate change and saving the bees (does anyone actually know what's happening with the bees?) are a little bit more important.

While making my most recent video about Zac Efron's chest and the pressure on men to be buff, which can cause them to partake in dangerous activities like steroid use, I was very aware of the issue's position in the pecking order of things that will make our world a better place. The inevitable comparison with the female body image issues that have plagued Western societies for generations was particularly salient for me, so I touched on the subject, acknowledged that in a world dominated by sexism and patriarchy women had it a lot worse, but I continued to address the topic that I had decided on for this video and that was important to me personally.

Comments in the video so far have been positive and yielded the results I wanted. I wanted men to be able to share their own body insecurities (for the record, I feel like I'm very hairy and have love handles) which they have, and for people who weren't aware of the issue to become aware of it, which some have. I urge you to scroll through the responses. I still maintain I have the best comments section on the Internet.

I do believe some people will have watched this video and brushed it off as a non-issue, especially as it was touched on by a middle class white man; my own privilege pains me. I did have the following comment from someone who has watched my videos for a while. I needed to digest for a little because it hit me quite hard as it was very critical of the topic I had chosen and the way I had addressed it.

NB: I've taken off her username and would appreciate if she weren't given a hard time by anyone reading this.